After Owen left, I sat down in the middle of the coffee shop and started working on the shopfront flower installation, which I hoped would be rather striking. I’d seen it in several shops in New York and in cities like Paris—thanks to Pinterest—and I’d fallen completely in love with the look and the way it transformed a space. Since we were living in a social media age, I wanted to do everything in my power and budget to make my coffee shop eye-catching, comfy, cozy, and beautiful.
Of course, this was all rooted in the hope that I would get actual living customers on opening day, and every day after that.
When Jack knocked on the door, I’d been waiting for him to show up for at least an hour. I had a big smile on my face when I opened the door for him, and he had a bewildered expression on his own.
“Hi. Hey. You’re late. Where were you?”
Those thick and prominent eyebrows drew together, but it still didn’t dampen my enthusiasm. This was Jack—frowning was like his version of saying hello.
“I’m late?”
“You always come around earlier. So…you’re late.”
“You were waiting for me?”
“Jack, I wait for you every day. It’s been almost three weeks.” I shrugged, not even realizing what I had just blurted out. “Come in, come in, it’s cold outside.” I opened the door wider and grabbed his arm, pulling him in since he was too busy staring at me.
“What do you mea—what is this?”
I came up behind him and bounced on my feet. He gave me another look, one that said he thought I was being weird. I ignored it completely. “It’s the flower installation that’s going to go outside. It’ll start on the ground and arch over the door. I’ll also add the group of flowers that’s over there to the back of the door so from the inside, it will look as if the flowers kinda went through the glass and bloomed on the wall inside.”
He nodded and I smiled again. I couldn’t contain it for some reason. “That’s a really great idea,” he said.
I was still bouncing, smaller bounces, but still…I was bouncy.
His forehead creased and his eyes looked me up and down. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked, and I burst out laughing, unable to contain myself.
“Nothing, Jack.” I shook my head, keeping the smile. “Absolutely nothing. Too much coffee, maybe?” I walked around the fake flowers that were covering almost every available surface. “Come help me?”
“I’m not so sure about that.”
I got on my knees and grabbed a bunch of roses from the ground. “You always help me.”
His jaw clenched. “Yes. Yes, I do, don’t I?”
“So? You’re not gonna help because helping with flowers isn’t manly enough? I won’t tell anyone, promise.”
He looked around the shop, around the floor, taking in all the shades of pink. Then he sighed and took off his black coat, followed by the black suit jacket.
“You can sit on the chair,” I said when he looked around as if he wasn’t sure where he should go. After a moment of hesitation, he pulled up the closest one and sat down to my left, his back to the door. “Why are you on the floor?”
“I started on the chair, but it goes quicker from here. You can hand me a wire with every flower.” I grabbed the wires from my right and handed them to him. “Different shades, though, okay? Don’t give me the same shade or shape back to back.”
He looked so lost with a small frown on his face, I couldn’t help but feel something in my chest. He wasn’t uttering any objections so I didn’t feel the need to let him off the hook, not to mention I really needed his help if I wanted to get out of there before the sun rose. When he took out a wire from the package and bent down to reach for a fake—but beautiful—rose from the pile, I cleared my throat.
“Ah, aren’t you gonna…”
He met my eyes. “Am I gonna…what?”
I was an idiot. “Your sleeves…you always roll them up.” I was a gigantic idiot, but…it was always one of the highlights of my day, so why should I have to suffer just because he forgot about it? It was my daily forearm porn, and I had started to look forward to it.
His frown got a tiny bit deeper as he looked down to his wrists and then—thank you God!—he put down the rose and the wire in his hand and started the process. I watched him the entire time without him even noticing it. When he grabbed the rose and the wire again, holding them straight up in his hands, I couldn’t hold back my grin.
“Something funny I should know about?”
“Nope.” I shook my head. “You’re all dressed up. Did you go to your office today?”